One of the Best
by ShamrockNinny
Summary: Set between Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation. Benji was a field agent now and maybe he'd proved himself to Ethan, but it was a little harder to win over Luther. One-shot that shows the beginning of the easy friendship we see between the two in Rogue Nation. Hurt Benji.


**One of the Best**

* * *

Tap into the server, piggyback the coordinates and then sit back and watch the warheads land in the middle of the Arctic ocean. Supposedly simple. Benji hadn't conducted that many missions, still a rookie to being a field agent. Still, this was all right up his alley. Ethan was securing the bad guy responsible for firing the missiles and Luther was performing back up.

"You there yet?"

Benji resisted the urge to snap at the impatience that was obvious in the deep toned voice. He'd never worked with Luther before this and the whole mission had been filled with rude snips, sarcastic comments and that judgemental stare that made Benji cringe with feelings of inadequacy. Ethan just sort of smiled or smirked at it. Obviously it was some sort of 'test' for Benji, but the Brit wasn't exactly appreciating it. God knew he already felt like he shouldn't be there, with his awkward rambling, his clumsiness in comparison to Ethan.

"I'll get there when I get there," Benji snapped back.

Luther let out a grunt of annoyance and Benji resisted the urge to sass back. Currently he was in an air duct, army crawling to his destination. Reaching the hatch of where he was supposed to drop down into the room, Benji began fiddling with the screws.

"Ten minutes," Luther reminded him through the ear piece.

"Yes, yes, I know," Benji said impatiently.

He finished with the fourth screw and with a thump of his fist sent the metal covering to the floor. He winced at the noise it made before dropping to the floor next to it. The room was filled with rows of computer servers, ceiling high processing machines which ran enormous amounts of data.

"I'm in," Benji said breathlessly.

Kneeling, he slipped his backpack off and withdrew a slim laptop, snapping it open and setting it on the ground. Then from his bag he withdrew a load of wires, busying himself with connecting them to his laptop and then to the main server. He was just about to insert the last one when a he saw movement from the corner of his eye. Frowning, he reached for his gun.

A man stepped out, gun already raised, Benji threw his arm up, but it was too late. There was the sharp rapport of the gun, two shots. Benji felt the impact of the hits, felt himself hit the ground and the whole world sort of spin out of control. Luther was saying something through the ear piece. The man approached, trim moustache, cruel victorious smirk, and the gun pointed at Benji again. Benji fingered his gun, preparing himself. He could try to take the man out, but at this point he was screwed. Then the man started talking in French, tone self-satisfied. Benji put all his focus and energy into pulling his gun up and firing.

The man's eyes went blank, Benji had aimed for the head. He closed his eyes, breath harsh as he heard the thud of the body. Everything felt funny, was it supposed to? He'd never been shot before.

"Benji! What happened?!"

Oh right, Luther was still screaming into his ear.

"Nothing," Benji replied, glancing down at bullet currently lodged in his abdomen. The other had struck his waist and Benji's hand hovered over the bleeding area. No time, he just needed to make sure the missiles coordinates were changed.

"You still need to change those coordinates," Luther sounded annoyed and pushy.

Benji wanted to snap something back, something witty and intelligent, but he found himself incapable.

"I know," he replied, pulling himself back towards his computer.

With fading attention, he went through a series of firewalls before he finally got to the right program. With a few quick alterations to a small number of code lines, he pressed enter and promptly fell to the side. It was done.

"Finished," Benji said, a small triumphant smile on his face.

"Good, we'll meet you back at the rendezvous."

Benji didn't reply, instead staring sluggishly at the body of his assailant. Thank God for monologues. He let out a wet chuckle and cringed at the pain it caused him.

"Benji?" Luther didn't sound so annoyed.

"Hmm?" Benji said, he felt fuzzy.

"The rendezvous," Luther prompted.

Benji gave a little nod, forgetting that Luther couldn't see him. Pain was starting to creep up and with it a sense of reality. He'd been shot, maybe things weren't so good. Benji stared in mild surprise at the blood that was slicking his skin and staining the floor.

"Yo-you guys don't, no waiting up," Benji replied, sentences broken as he tried to get his brain to work.

He was rather tired and he didn't feel up to moving any.

"Benji?! What's wrong?!" Luther sounded frantic, or was it mad?

Benji was too tired to really know. There was a strong curse word on the other line and Benji nearly reprimanded Luther. His mum would've put soap in his mouth for talking like that.

* * *

Ethan caught their bad guy with little to no hitches, at least for him. So maybe there were more bodyguards than they'd originally anticipated, and maybe Dmitri Smith was a six foot giant made mainly out of muscle. Nothing a little mild sedative couldn't fix.

It had gone well, relatively, and he was currently escorting his drugged companion out to the rendezvous point, kindly ignoring the man's excited exclamations about the rainbows he was seeing. Luther had even said that the missiles coordinates were fixed and all in all the mission was a success.

"Turbinado, we might have a problem."

Ethan blinked, glancing at Smith.

"What is it Demerara?" Ethan replied, his gut already tumbling with a sense of something being wrong.

"I think Muscovado is down."

Ethan froze. His brain spun, Benji had been in the server room, it was supposed to be safe, the rookie agent was supposed to be doing the easy, less dangerous part.

"Where is he?" Ethan asked, glancing around for a route.

"Still in the server room as far as I can tell," Luther replied.

Ethan gave a nod. He could be there in five minutes, three if he took a more dangerous route.

"I'm headed that way, pick up our cargo for me, will you," Ethan was tying a giddily smiling Smith to a roof pole with his belt.

"Wait, Ethan, you can't just leave Smith there," Luther argued.

"I'm not, you're picking him up," Ethan replied, already running towards the edge of the building.

Luther let out a sigh which Ethan heard as he entered the air to free fall. He slammed against the adjacent building's lip and quickly pulled himself up. This was the building with the server. Ethan considered the rooftop entrance, then he looked at the small ledges to the windows of the building. He needed to go to the other side of the building and then down a story. Sprinting across the roof, Ethan made his decision.

He dropped down from the roof onto the fifth story ledge of a window. Carefully eyeing the distance between him and the next ledge, Ethan dropped. Landing, he looked in the window and saw nothing because of how tinted it was.

Shifting, he drew his gun out and fired at the glass. It shattered, fragmenting and clinging to the frame. Kicking it in, Ethan dropped down into the server room. There were aisles of machines, ceiling high and with fans creating a steady drone of noise.

Gun still in hand, Ethan trotted down the aisle he was in and peered around the next one. No Benji. Continuing on, he checked the next few aisles until he saw a couple bodies. His heart dropped and Ethan cautiously approached. When he saw that the one man was down, he raced over to the more familiar one.

"Benji?" Ethan called, eyes flicking over the man's figure, checking the damage.

An abdominal shot and another which had hit his hip. The hip one was bleeding badly. Benji's eyes flickered open and Ethan was met with a pair of glazed blue eyes filled with confusion.

"Ethan?" Benji slurred, staring in perplexion at him.

Ethan smiled and gave a nod.

"You're going to be alright, Benji," Ethan assured.

"That's what they say when you're not," Benji murmured, staring with wide eyes at Ethan as he began applying pressure to the hip wound.

Benji let out a small gasp of pain, but aside form squirming a little at the pressure he barely reacted.

"Demerara we need an medievac, now," Ethan kept working on his friend.

Benji had already lost a lot of blood. Ethan saw eyelids flicker, already at half-mast and quickly falling.

"Hey, hey, no falling asleep on me," Ethan said, patting Benji's face.

Benji's eyes snapped open, alert, if just for a moment.

"'M no' sleepin'," Benji refuted petulantly.

Ethan smiled with weak amusement, still focused on making sure his teammate stayed alive.

"Luther's gonna be here soon, alright?"

Benji didn't seem to hear the reassurance, eyes landing on the computer.

"We, we finish? Saved everyone?" Benji said, weak gaze falling on Ethan with a perturbed and earnest air.

Ethan's mouth twitched bitterly. Benji wasn't necessarily the most smooth or coordinated agent, he was far from suave. But he cared, was intensely loyal, and he had a heart of gold that you didn't often find in the agency or even in general. Ever since they'd met on the mission with Davian, Ethan had been amused by the technician, then grateful after the man's role in saving Julia. His mission against the Syndicate with Ilsa Faust had solidified his opinion of the man. And now, after so many missions, he trusted Benji and valued him. To lose him, well it was unthinkable.

"Yeah, we did Benji, you did good," Ethan replied.

A satisfied smile came on Benji's face and the field agent's eyes slipped close.

"Benji?" Ethan said, hands finding Benji's face.

There was no response and Benji's body was slack.

"Benji!?"

* * *

They'd lost him, twice. But somehow the medic was able to bring him back. It had been up there in worst experiences for Ethan. Give him broken bones, concussion, or gunshot wounds any day, but have someone he felt responsible for injured and life was less easy.

Ethan let out a soft sigh and watched Benji's supine and unconscious form from through the glass wall. Agent Dunn was still recovering, but he'd live with very few repercussions. Maybe some physical therapy for a few months, but no lasting damage.

"You were right."

Ethan turned, brought out of his musing by the appearance of Luther at his shoulder. Luther was eyeing Ethan with his usual quiet disbelief.

"Right?" Ethan replied, not knowing what Luther was talking about.

"He's a good agent," Luther replied, eyes cutting to Benji.

Ethan nodded his head.

"Yeah, one of the best."


End file.
